(Kitco News) - Comex December gold futures prices are modestly lower in early U.S. trading Monday. The precious metals are feeling some selling pressure from bearish “outside market� forces to start the new trading week, as the U.S. dollar index is higher and crude oil prices are lower. December gold last traded down $9.00 at $1,779.10 an ounce. Spot gold last traded down $10.40 an ounce at $1,778.50. December Comex silver last traded down $0.442 at $34.24 an ounce. The new trading week finds the European Union financial and sovereign debt crisis has at least temporarily stabilized as there were no major, unexpected weekend developments regarding that situation. In fact, Greek and Italian leaders have recently made remarks to assuage the market place. This has allowed the European and U.S. stock markets to also stabilize. Italian bond yields have declined below the critical 7% level, after last week trading above that key level. However, the EU debt crisis is still far from being resolved and could escalate on a moment’s notice. While not evident the past few days, the heightened EU uncertainty remains an overall bullish underlying factor for the gold market. The U.S. dollar index is trading higher Monday morning. The dollar index bulls have gained upside near-term technical momentum recently. That is a bearish underlying fundamental for the precious metals. Meantime, crude oil prices are lower Monday morning, but did hit a fresh 13-week high of $99.69 a barrel overnight. Crude is still an overall bullish “outside market� force for the precious metals, as crude prices remain in a solid near-term uptrend. There is no major U.S. economic data due for release Monday. The London A.M. gold fixing was $1,780.50 versus the previous P.M. fixing of $1,773.00. Technically, December gold bulls have the solid overall near-term technical advantage. Prices are in a seven-week-old uptrend on the daily bar chart and in a 10-year-old uptrend on the longer-term monthly chart. Bulls’ next upside technical objective is to produce a close above solid technical resistance at last week’s high of $1,804.40. Bears’ next near-term downside price objective is closing prices below solid technical support at last week’s low of $1,736.60. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $1,797.60 and then at $1,800.00. First support is seen at the overnight low of $1,774.20 and then at $1,754.60. December silver futures bulls still have the overall near-term technical advantage, but are fading a bit and need to show fresh power soon. A seven-week-old uptrend is still in place on the daily bar chart. Silver bulls’ next upside price objective is producing a close above technical resistance at the October high of $35.70 an ounce. The next downside price breakout objective for the bears is closing prices below solid technical support at the November low of $32.105. First resistance is seen at the overnight high of $34.92 and then at $35.00. Next support is seen at $34.00 and then at Friday’s low of $33.665. Follow me on Twitter to immediately get the very latest market developments. If you are not on board, then you are not getting key analysis and perspective as fast or as often as you could! Follow me on Twitter to get my very timely intra-day and after-hours briefs on precious metals price action. The precious markets will remain very active. If you want market analysis fast, and in after-hours trading, then follow my up-to-the-second precious metals market perspective on Twitter. It’s free, too. My account is @jimwyckoff.

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